Drax energy station’s additional reporting failure uncovered by BBC Information

A UK energy station that has obtained billions of kilos in authorities subsidies has failed greater than as soon as to report it burned wooden from main forests, BBC Information has discovered.

Drax Energy Station, which burns wooden pellets, is required to report the place it sources its wooden and whether or not it’s from pure, beforehand untouched forests.

The corporate paid a £25m penalty final 12 months for misreporting this knowledge following an investigation by the power regulator Ofgem and now the BBC has found an additional 12 months of misreporting that has not been checked out by the regulator.

The corporate didn’t deny misreporting its sustainability knowledge however mentioned it’s “targeted on implementing the teachings discovered”.

The ability station, a transformed coal plant in North Yorkshire, generates roughly 6% of the UK’s electrical energy and has obtained billions of kilos in subsidies from the federal government and bill-payers as a result of wood-burning is classed as a supply of renewable power.

BBC Panorama and BBC Information has beforehand reported that Drax held logging licences in British Columbia, Canada, and used wooden, together with entire timber, from main and old-growth forests for its pellets.

These are pure forests which have by no means been industrially logged and lock up and retailer vital quantities of carbon as nicely offering key wildlife habitats.

The corporate says it doesn’t personal forests or sawmills, now not bids for logging licences and has stopped sourcing wooden from some websites, the place the British Columbia authorities has requested corporations to pause additional logging.

Nonetheless, public logging information present Drax nonetheless sources entire timber from main forests which can be felled by different corporations within the province, regardless of stating in its personal sustainability standards that the corporate will “keep away from injury or disturbance to excessive carbon forests” which “will be outlined as main forest”.

Trendy industrial logging solely actually started within the inside of British Columbia within the Nineteen Sixties, which implies the areas which were logged and replanted in latest a long time aren’t but mature sufficient for these plantations to harvested.

Practically all the commercial logging that takes place within the inside of the province is from “woodland of native species the place there isn’t any clearly seen indication of human actions and the ecological processes aren’t considerably disturbed”, the wording utilized by Ofgem to outline main forests.

Drax was required to report back to Ofgem that it had sourced wooden from these areas however knowledge obtained by the BBC by way of environmental data requests reveals the corporate did not declare any wooden from main forests within the sustainability knowledge it submitted to the regulator relating to its Canadian wooden pellets for the 12 months 2020-21.

That 12 months Drax burned simply over 1.2 million tonnes of wooden pellets from Canada, with a major proportion coming from main forests within the inside of British Columbia.

The corporate didn’t reply to the BBC’s questions on why it had misreported its sustainability knowledge and whether or not it had misled each the federal government and the power regulator over its use of wooden from main forests.

Drax seems to have since lowered its reliance on Canadian wooden. The corporate mentioned that solely round 2.5% of pellets used at its energy station in 2023 got here from British Columbia, predominantly from public forests which were designated for harvesting.

The corporate mentioned it “recognises the significance of sustainably sourced biomass, and we work to make sure our pellets are legally harvested and meet the strict sustainability necessities of the UK, US, and Canadian governments, in addition to these of the EU.”

The UK’s present biomass sustainability standards doesn’t prohibit entire timber from main forests getting used for wooden pellets.

The corporate added that the misreporting beforehand recognized by Ofgem was “technical in nature” and “wouldn’t have impacted the degrees of ROCs [subsidies] earned”.

In response to Ofgem, correct sustainability knowledge allows the federal government “to know and monitor the extent to which each main forests and sawlogs are utilized in woody biomass, which has penalties for carbon emissions and biodiversity”.

Following their investigation final 12 months and Drax’s subsequent £25m penalty for misreporting knowledge, the regulator Ofgem mentioned it “will not hesitate to behave” within the occasion of additional wrong-doing.

Nonetheless, when approached by the BBC the regulator didn’t decide to any particular motion regarding the additional misreporting uncovered by the BBC.

In an announcement an Ofgem spokesperson mentioned: “We thank the BBC for sharing this data which pertains to the identical challenge that was recognized in our investigation into Drax.”

They added that Ofgem is making Drax “conduct a full unbiased, exterior audit of its world provide chain profiling knowledge to fulfill us applicable processes and controls are in place for the long run” and added: “If any further proof involves gentle following the audit, we are going to examine once more.”

Drax’s present renewable subsidies schemes come to an finish in 2027 and the BBC’s discovery of additional misreporting of sustainability knowledge by Drax comes as the federal government is predicted to announce an extension of Drax’s subsidies imminently.

The federal government says it’s rigorously contemplating amending the present biomass sustainability standards and can challenge an replace shortly however didn’t affirm whether or not it’s going to stop wooden from main forests getting used for wooden pellets.

A spokesperson for the Division for Vitality Safety and Internet Zero mentioned: “The state of affairs we inherited for big scale biomass mills was unacceptable.

“Ofgem required an additional audit to be undertaken and they’re working carefully with Drax to make sure any misreporting doesn’t occur once more.”